Sunday, August 3, 2014

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So where can the truth be
found in corporate media with regard to the current catastrophe in Gaza?
Well, we have to go to the Irish Times to find a closer approximation to the
truth in mainstream press, although even this article is missing key facts,
like the time of day of the IDF attack on Rafah, before the most recent and
aborted ceasefire and the death of Lt. Hadar Goldin in that same attack.

The reported post-ceasefire kidnapping of Goldin that didn't actually happen
was the pretext for resuming the one-sided war on the part of Israel.
President Obama, on dubious reporting from Israel, went on to describe the
event that never happened as "a barbaric act," but hasn't used any
words close to that to describe the bombing of UN Relief Centers, Hospitals and
UN-run schools where hundreds of women and children have been killed as a
direct result of aerial bombardment by the Israeli Air force.
Has the New York Times reported the circumstances of the ceasefire
breakage? Unsurprisingly, the answer is No.
In fact, as we now know, the Times' August 1st article regarding the
events around the ending of the ceasefire was false and that the Times updated its story after the fact, when
it became clear there were inconsistencies in the initial reports, which had
been vetted with the Israeli military’s censor. Yes the Times has
admitted to complying with the censor.Response to the updated
report came from the Freedom of the Press Foundation, which
has been critical of the NYT practice of its correspondents complying with
Israeli Military Censors and has asked the Times to come clean on its use of
this practice in the past. As Commondreams points out, the Times has been
questioned on this and apparently, its bureau chief in Israel, Jodi Rudoren,
has admitted that the Times has complied with gag orders imposed by the Israeli
government on its own journalists. See a report on this by media critic
Greg Mitchell here, complements of
Commondreams.org. The Times proceeded to defend the practice with the
absurd analogy of observing traffic laws in foreign countries.

It is my view that
Netanyahu, based on all of his pre-election public rhetoric, has not changed
his view that there can never be a Palestinian state anywhere within Eretz
Israel. He has chosen to violate the the Fourth Geneva Convention and the
Nuremberg Principles to carry out his extermination of Hamas, but also of any
Palestinians proximate to them. He has not recognized the democratic election
in Gaza and instead has punished the innocents of Gaza for practicing their
democratic rights under international law. In a sick irony that defies
words, he has chosen the final solution and the US is party to it. With billions in annual US military and foreign
aid support in place and past military loans to Israel being converted to
grants, the US Congress saw fit to approve a pre-recess $225M bill for
expansion of the Israel "Iron Dome" system. While leaving important
domestic legislation stalled, Congress has shown its willful denial of the
catastrophe at hand. In an even sicker irony that would leave one
laughing were the present savagery not so acute, MIT scientist Dr. Theodore
Postal has rigorously demonstrated that the Iron
Dome system actually does not work as described and its effectiveness is
approximately from 0 to less that 5%, with the best measurements yielding a
figure closer to zero.

What people are actually seeing on repeated television
loops showing aerial explosions are the Iron Dome munitions exploding alone in
the sky in what amounts to a $205M, US-funded fireworks exhibition. This
is physics, not politics and here, our anti-science right wing of Congress
cannot be made the easy target for Liberals, since the pre-recess vote was 395
– 8. The plank in the eye is much too large.The truth is buried deep in
our information-rich society, but the larger system of obfuscation is stronger
than ever. One can only hope that the human conscience and natural
curiosity can overcome the distortions that aid and abet our preexisting
biases.

George Orwell has been with
me as I dig through the mire of distortion to get to the bottom of things
during this horrendous humanitarian catastrophe and I must quote him hear for
some edification. Political language, he wrote "....is designed to
make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of
solidity to pure wind. One cannot change this all in a moment, but one can at
least change one's own habits, and from time to time one can even, if one jeers
loudly enough, send some worn-out and useless phrase -- some jackboot,
Achilles' heel, hotbed, melting pot, acid test, veritable inferno, or other
lump of verbal refuse -- into the dustbin, where it belongs.